


As We Tarry

by Sid



Series: Rex [2]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-24
Updated: 2012-09-24
Packaged: 2017-11-15 00:31:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/521140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sid/pseuds/Sid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a sequel to my story 'Lost and Found'</p>
<p>This story takes place after <em>Ark of Truth</em> and before Atlantis Season 4.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As We Tarry

**As We Tarry**

Another day, another mission. Final briefing, final cup of coffee, gear up, hit the restroom, stop at the armory, fall in at the foot of the ramp. Cam surveyed his team. Sam was fiddling with some handheld gizmo, Jackson was retying a boot, and SG-1's alien contingent was discussing last night's American Idol. Cam looked up at the control room. "Present and accounted for, sir."

"Dial it up," Landry told the technician.

They were no sooner through the Stargate than Teal'c said, "This is wrong."

Cam hoisted his P-90. "Eyes sharp, everyone. What's up, big guy?"

"I have seen the MALP pictures. Those trees should be farther away."

"And just where _is_ the MALP?" Vala asked.

"Not here," Daniel said. "Sam?"

"The sun's in the wrong place, the MALP's missing and Teal'c's right about the trees. This isn't P6Y-214."

"Somebody dialed the wrong address?" Cam asked.

"Guess so," Daniel said, looking around.

"Sam?" Cam turned to her.

She was frowning. "Well, yeah, that must be what happened. I mean, there's a ton of safeguards in place, but I suppose it could happen."

"What else could it possibly be?" Vala asked.

Sam shrugged. "I don't…hey, does this place look familiar to anyone else?"

"Don't think so," Cam answered.

"Nope," Vala said.

"I believe you may be right, Colonel Carter." Teal'c had lowered his weapon and was staring into the trees up ahead.

"Jackson? What do you…hey!"

Daniel was walking quickly toward the trees.

"Daniel?"

"Jackson! Hey! Just where do you think you're going?"

"To the temple," Daniel tossed back over his shoulder. He broke into a jog.

"Temple?" Cam said to the group at large. "Did I miss something? Jackson, wait up!"

“P3R-112,” Sam blurted, and began running after Daniel. "Daniel, stop!"

"Never heard of it," Vala called after her. "Muscles?"

"Come, we must follow them."

Teal'c set out at a fast lope, and Cam hustled to stay with him. "P3R-112? I should know that one, right?"

"You will have read of it. It is the designation of the planet where the being that O'Neill named Rex abides."

Holy crap. Rex. Everyone had thought Jackson had gotten brain damaged somehow, but it had turned out some alien life force had taken over his body. He'd been fine in the end, but there'd been a lot more questions than answers, and no one but Jackson had been interested in pursuing those answers. "Wait, wait; it's supposed to be locked out of the dialing computer, isn't it?"

"What are you all talking about?"

"We'll explain later," Cam told Vala. Jackson had picked up the pace. "Come on!"

Ahead, Sam had caught up with Daniel. She put out a hand to grab his arm, but he somehow fended her off. "Daniel!"

"It's all right. I have to go." Daniel looked over his shoulder. "Teal'c, Mitchell. Don't try to stop me." He ran faster. "Rex never hurt anyone!" he shouted back at them.

"He's never kidnapped anyone before, either!" Cam answered, dodging a low-hanging tree limb.

Vala, at his heels, panted, "Who is this Rex person anyway?"

They entered a clearing where the temple stood. Daniel slowed to a walk. "He's the spirit of the forest. I think. I never did get a chance to finish translating the walls."

"Spirit?"

Cam edged past Daniel and tried to block his way. "Just hold up a second, Jackson, would ya?"

"Ah, no. Really can't," Daniel said, and he was somehow around Cam and approaching the temple entrance.

Cam spun around. "The hell just happened?"

"Daniel, wait for us!" Vala called anxiously.

Cam led the others through the temple's doorway. It was pin-drop quiet and there was no sign of Jackson in the dim room, although they'd been right behind him. Hadn't they? "Where'd he go?"

"This way," Sam said, running off to the left, where Cam could barely make out another doorway.

"Flashlights," Cam ordered, following her. The beam of Vala's flashlight joined his in showing the way for a few seconds, until they were both subsumed by a brighter glow.

Cam raced through the doorway and came to a shuddering halt next to Sam. He couldn't seem to move. Teal'c's shoulder pressed against his. Vala's flashlight clattered to the floor on Sam's other side.

Daniel was standing in the center of the room, looking somewhat anxiously up at the light that was streaming down on him. "See you guys soon, I hope."

"Stop this!" Cam shouted. The light from the ceiling abruptly disappeared. Daniel looked at him. "Jackson?"

Daniel's eyes swept to either side of Cam. He smiled.

Either the chamber had gotten smaller, or Jackson had gotten bigger. Or maybe it was just the shadow he cast because of the flashlight lying on the floor. "Jackson?"

"My dear children."

Sam inhaled sharply.

"And new friends! Welcome. It is very good to see you all."

Vala bent to pick up her flashlight with a swift move and shone it into Daniel's face. "What have you done with Daniel?"

Rex smiled at her and was silent.

“Oh, all right, I’m Vala. Pleased to meet you; now where’s our friend?”

Rex turned Daniel's gaze on Cam, still smiling.

"Cameron Mitchell. And ditto on the where's Jackson?"

“Cameron. A good name. Daniel sleeps. As before. He is not here. Not _here_ ,” Rex corrected himself, pointing to his chest. He raised a hand and waved it towards the ceiling. “He _is_ here.”

"We'd like him back, please."

"Ditto on that," Vala added.

"Why have you done this?" Teal'c asked. "Why have you returned us here?"

"And how?" Sam wanted to know. "It shouldn't even be possible for us to be here. Our Stargate shouldn't dial this one, no matter what you've done to it."

Rex stepped nearer, and Cam wondered why he wasn't reaching for his gun. Aside from not wanting to shoot Jackson. Aside from how things had gone down peaceably enough the first time around, according to the reports. This was clearly threatening behavior. They'd been dragged here, God alone knew how, and this…whatever…had stolen Jackson's body. "We'd like some explanations, and we would like them now, please."

"My dear friend is not with you?"

"What?"

"I believe he means O'Neill."

Rex nodded at Teal'c. “O'Neill,” he said, smiling with evident pleasure at the sound of the name. “Bring Jack O'Neill to me. I would speak with him.”

“Whoa,” Cam objected. “That’s not the way it works. When you give us Jackson back, then we’ll talk.”

Rex looked at Sam.

“Um, well, without Daniel he can’t talk to us; isn't that right?”

“Jack will come,” Rex said with a tone of finality.

Cam believed him, but there was no sense in giving in too soon. "General O'Neill's a busy guy. You can't expect him to drop everything and come running, just because you'd like to have a little chitchat with him."

Rex just looked at him, and it was one of the weirder experiences Cam had had since he joined the Stargate program. It was easy enough when Rex was talking to say, yeah, no way that's Jackson. Rex had a deeper voice, although thank goodness the difference wasn't host-versus-symbiote different, because that would have just made a creepy situation all the creepier. And, even after Vala'd picked up her flashlight, Rex still seemed to be bigger somehow than Jackson. Cam felt like he was looking up at him, even though he knew (he _knew_ ) he and Jackson were pretty much the exact same height.

But now Rex was just looking at him, and it was Jackson's eyes Cam looked back at. But Jackson wasn't behind them. Cam had to keep telling himself that. Right now, Jackson was just a suit of clothes Rex had put on.

Shouldn't he feel sick about that? Cam thought he should feel sick about that. He knew he had to _do_ something about that.

"Mitchell."

Cam closed his eyes briefly. "Yeah."

"I will return to the Stargate and dial Earth."

Cam sighed. "Yeah, you do that, Teal'c."

"How does this work?" Sam asked. "Do they dial P6Y-214 again, and the general will be redirected here?"

Rex was still looking at Cam. "Sure," Cam said. "That'll probably work."

"Probably?" Vala said.

"I do not think we need to concern ourselves with such details," Teal'c answered.

"No," Cam agreed. "Pretty sure we don't."

Rex smiled.

~~~~

The mind wanders when engaged in paperwork. Jack's mind kept wandering back to the previous weekend, when he and Daniel had been able to snatch an entire twenty-nine hours together after three solid months apart. Plus, Jack had played a round of golf after Daniel left. It was a sad commentary on his current life when the memory of a few hours of sunshine, fresh air, good company and mild exercise were almost as thrilling to look back on as the memory of drawn curtains, a room that reeked of sex and lube, naked Daniel and some fairly vigorous romping.

Jack signed on the dotted line, initialed the cover sheet, crossed his name off the routing envelope, paper clipped the lot together, and tossed it onto the growing stack that was threatening to slide off the corner of his desk. It wouldn't be him picking it all up if it went. RHIP. _The curve of Daniel's hip against his palm._ He sipped from his grown-too-cool mug of tea. _Daniel's nipples sitting up and begging for attention_. Jack picked up the next file from his in-tray. _That sweet putt on the 14th hole._

His phone rang quietly. Jack glanced at the buttons. There were two dedicated lines among the myriad: the White House and Cheyenne Mountain. He was already picking up the receiver when his intercom buzzed. He ignored it. "O'Neill."

"Jack, you're not going to like this."

"Hank?"

"I sent SG-1 off on their scheduled mission forty minutes ago. Teal'c just dialed in to report that they're not on the planet they're supposed to be on."

"Who screwed up?"

"No one. They were somehow diverted."

Jack shifted in his seat. "They okay?"

"More or less."

"And the 'less' part?"

"Would be Doctor Jackson's situation."

If Daniel were dead the conversation wouldn't be going this way. If he were injured, Hank would've said so right away. Jack shut his eyes. "Spit it out."

"SG-1 was diverted to P3R-112, which is blocked out of our dialing computer. You've been there."

The hairs on the back of Jack's neck stood up. "You know me and numbers," he said, trying not to sound as angry and frightened as he was beginning to feel. _Where…?_

"You remember a fellow you decided to call Rex?"

Jack instantly remembered Daniel's hand in his and Daniel's eyes, vacant and lost. "I remember. He's got Daniel again?" He tried to feel relaxed about that, and failed.

"And he's asking for you."

Jack found himself on his feet. " _Odyssey_?"

"In position, waiting for my signal. Say the word."

"Sixty seconds." Jack hung up and crossed to the door, opening it. "Lieutenant?"

"Sir?"

"I'll be out indefinitely." Jack shut the door again. He looked around his office, trying to think if there was anything he should be taking with him. His mouth twitched. The Pentagon hadn't issued him any crayons. He buttoned his uniform jacket and picked up his cover from its hook beside the door. At least, thanks to a boring and ridiculous meeting that morning, he was well dressed for visiting an old friend.

With the customary flash of light, his office disappeared. He was on the bridge of _Odyssey_ just long enough to exchange nods with the captain, and then he was in the Gate room with Hank and two teams of armed Marines. "No."

"I don't like the idea of sending you out there alone, General O'Neill."

Jack scrubbed a frustrated hand through his hair. "Look, I spent a lot of time with this guy. Not that I knew it at the time, but…"

Hank tapped the folder in his hand. "I've been skimming the file."

"Then you know what I'm telling you. There is no known threat, here."

"The assessment at the time of the first mission was that we had no means of _judging_ the level of threat we might be facing. Hence the decision to lock the address out of the computer."

"Which…raises a question."

"We're sending you to the address we thought we were sending SG-1 to. Teal'c seemed confident that that would do the job."

"I've always admired Teal'c's confidence. Let me tell you, though: I wouldn't be too confident that a passel of Marines would find themselves where I'll presumably find _my_ self. And, so, therefore."

"I don't like it."

Jack looked up over Hank's shoulder and made a circular motion with his finger. "Dial it up, Walter."

"Dialing P6Y-214, sir."

Jack tucked his cover under his arm, avoiding Hank's eyes. That drew his attention to the Marines who were standing by, most of them looking confused but dogged. "Stand down, already."

"Dismissed," Hank barked.

Now Jack was avoiding the eyes of the Marines, so he watched the chevrons locking to the accompaniment of Walter's soothingly familiar voice. He felt Hank loom. "I'll bring him back."

"I don't doubt that." Hank pressed Jack's shoulder. "Good luck."

The wormhole surged into life, and Jack settled his cover firmly on his head and walked up the ramp and through the Gate. Teal'c was waiting for him on the other side. "T! How are things?"

Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Have you not been informed of how things are?"

"I meant, how are things with you?"

"I am well, O'Neill." Teal'c extended a hand toward the treeline ahead. They began walking. "It is good to see you once again."

"Likewise. Weird, though. Seeing you without," Jack gestured, "the ol' staff weapon."

"I have not carried one in quite some time."

"Yes, well."

"At least you have with time become accustomed to my hair."

Jack halted and stared. "That's true. That stopped being weird."

Teal'c inclined his head an inch and allowed his lips to curve about a quarter of that.

They resumed walking. "So what's the situation?"

"We arrived and realized at once that we were not where we expected to be. Daniel Jackson began running towards the temple, with the rest of us pursuing. Both Colonel Carter and Colonel Mitchell attempted to block his path and restrain him, but he eluded them in some manner I could not determine and continued on into the temple. We found him in the side chamber, with light descending from the ceiling and shining all around him. As we saw once before when he was returned to his body."

Jack remembered all too well. "And, poof? Hello, Rex?"

"Indeed. He then desired to speak with you."

"Oh, I desire to speak with him, too."

Teal'c eyes gleamed with what Jack interpreted to be gleeful anticipation. So, T was apparently pretty relaxed about the whole thing. That had to be a good sign. Of course, Teal'c wasn't Daniel's lover. Because then Jack would be feeling awfully sorry for poor, doomed Rex. Talk about your Jaffa revenge thing…

When they entered the clearing, Mitchell was leaning against the sun-baked stone of the temple, eyes closed.

"Colonel."

Mitchell snapped to, more or less, looking a little out of it. "Sir. Glad you're here."

"You all right?"

"Yes, sir. No, sir." Mitchell shook his head, frowning.

"Which is it?"

"I'm…a bit unnerved, I guess. On account of not being unnerved enough."

Jack squeezed his eyes shut in a wince.

"Rex seems to be having an effect on me."

"Indeed? I found him to be quite calming."

"Yes!" Mitchell pointed at Teal'c. "That. Calming. Which should be making me nervous."

"Should it?"

"Shouldn't it, sir?"

"So, what? You think he's manipulating you?"

Mitchell didn't hesitate. "No."

"No."

Mitchell bit his lip. "No."

"So the problem is?"

"I'm worried that I'm not worried enough."

Jack surveyed him for a second. "I actually get that. It comes with the territory, son."

Mitchell smiled weakly.

"Are the others yet inside?"

"Yeah. Rex seems to have hit it off with Vala. Which is another weird thing, because she was all up in arms about Jackson at first."

"Calming," Jack muttered, as he stepped past Mitchell and into the temple.

"I left when they started talking about nail polish," Mitchell said in a low, not quite hysterical voice as he followed Jack in, shining his flashlight ahead. "Sam's riding herd."

Jack nodded, setting his jaw. "Oh, she's been doing that for years." He crossed into the next chamber. Carter, Vala and Rex were sitting on the dusty floor. "Howdy, folks."

Carter scrambled to her feet. "Sir."

Vala rose to her knees, and Rex unfolded himself from the floor in a fluid manner that Jack hadn't seen from Daniel in years. "Jack!"

It turned out that Jack didn't have Mitchell's problem, because he found it plenty unnerving to be the focus of all the warmth and happiness that was emanating from his lover's face, but not coming from Daniel. No, coming from something, or someone, that might even almost be sort of a god of some kind. Maybe. "Howdy," he said again, clearing his throat.

Rex stood in front of him, just looking.

"Give us a few," Jack said quietly to Carter.

"Yes, sir." Carter gathered Vala and followed Mitchell back into the next room. Taking their flashlights with them.

"D'oh." Jack stood in the near-darkness and felt like an idiot. He felt Daniel's familiar hand take his, and he let Rex lead him back into the main chamber, which was lit by the sunlight coming through the doorway. Vala's silhouette blocked some of the light for a second and then was gone.

They were alone. Daniel's hand was still in his. Jack squeezed it. Rex squeezed back.

"It's been a while."

"I have missed you."

Jack couldn't imagine what the proper response to that would be. As far as he knew, Rex had been silent and alone since the day SG-1 had returned him here to the temple. "Why now?" Jack asked helplessly.

"I seek knowledge." Rex smiled and Daniel's eyes crinkled.

"Wow, have you come to the wrong person."

"You are the only person who can answer me."

"Seriously? All right, I'm game. What's this knowledge you seek?"

"I wish to know if I saw your future correctly."

Jack was taken aback. "Are you sure your timing's right, here? I don't want you asking me about things that haven't happened yet. That would just be…deeply, weirdly disturbing. And I'm fairly certain no good could come of it."

"I only wish to know this, my friend: was your heart healed as I foretold?"

"Daniel?" came out of Jack's mouth before he could prevent it. In the last second before Daniel had been returned to his body, Rex had promised Jack that his heart would be healed, the heart that had nearly broken before he'd realized that the damaged, child-like shell of the former Daniel that he'd been grieving over wasn't really Daniel at all. Getting Daniel back had been a relief, and a salve for the parts of Jack that had been aching, but it had been more than that. It had been a second chance, to say the things he'd never had the courage to say before.

"Daniel. And you. It is so." Rex beamed.

"Are you _nuts_?" Jack exploded. "Did you seriously kidnap my people, appropriate Daniel's body - _again_ \- without so much as a by-your-leave, and then hold all of the above hostage until I showed up, just so you could ask me about…" Jack looked over his shoulder at the doorway, then grabbed Daniel's arm and pulled Rex further back into the shadows of the chamber. "About my _love life_?"

Rex smiled. "No, Jack."

Jack let go of him. "Because it's looking that way to me, I gotta tell ya."

"Of course I am pleased to learn that you and Daniel love each other. That is as it should be."

Jack held up a finger. "I never said that!" Rex just smiled, and Jack's collar began to feel too tight. "Then what's this all about?"

"I wanted to see you all once more."

"Seriously? That's it? You did all this just so you could say ‘Hi’? You can’t interfere with us like that!”

"Rest assured, Jack. It will not happen again."

Jack twitched at the sorrow he thought he could hear. "I'm sorry. I really am. But, yeah, this is just beyond the pale. You can't…" He paused and stared, weighing the words he'd heard. "What do you mean exactly, 'It won't happen again'?"

"I am coming to the end of my days."

Jack felt a contraction in his chest, like a fist clenching. "You're dying?" he asked hoarsely.

Rex reached out and laid Daniel's hand against Jack's chest. The clenched fist fluttered open. "Not like one of flesh and blood. I will change."

"Nothing painful, I hope?" Jack hesitated, then reached out. Daniel's heart beat against his palm. Daniel's heart would understand what he was saying. It always did. Maybe Rex would, too.

Rex put Daniel's other hand over Jack’s, and Jack was filled with an overwhelming sense of peace. “Long years did I slumber here before you woke me. My time is past, and I am lonely without my children. I choose to go.”

Tears welled in Jack's eyes.

Rex kissed the palm that had been pressed against Daniel's chest, and held onto Jack's hand as he asked, "Will you bear company with me, Jack, while I take one last walk under sun and sky?"

Jack nodded silently.

They walked together, out of the temple and into the bright clearing. SG-1 sprang to attention, their faces lighting up, until one by one they saw that Jack's hand was in Daniel's.

"Is everything all right, General?" Mitchell asked.

Jack nodded and didn't look at him. "We're just going for a walk. For a while. We won't go far." He knew what would happen the farther Rex got from the temple. How his eyes would grow blank, his feet would stumble, his ability to speak in sentences would desert him. He remembered the bewildering, frightening pain of watching it happening to Daniel.

Old pain, never forgotten, but ephemeral. All had ended well, all those years ago. New pain, from moments ago, already transformed into acceptance. Instant grief, only half understood, instantly gone.

So why was he crying?

In the end, the rest of SG-1 trailed along with them, at Rex's request. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea. Rex would have had a longer last stroll without them, because it was the growing look of horror and distress on Vala's face that led Jack to turn them all around and head back. It was the right decision. The tautness left Mitchell's face as he threw an arm around Vala's shoulders and moved up to take point.

Carter and Teal'c had seen it all before, of course, but they hadn't been enjoying seeing it again.

And Jack? By the time they reentered the temple, he had his answer.

Rex never let go of his hand. He kissed Jack's lips softly and tilted Daniel's head back to look up. The ceiling of the chamber began to glow, light showered down, Daniel's face became radiant. The light faded. And Jack was holding Daniel's hand.

~~~~

"I still can't believe none of you asked him any questions," Daniel said mournfully. "We still know nothing about him, his past, his people. What he even is."

"Was," Vala said softly. She made a face. "I'm sorry, Daniel. I would have liked to know him better myself, but I really couldn't think of any questions to ask him, at the time. We just…talked."

"It's hard to explain," Carter added.

"It is impossible to explain," Teal'c corrected.

Jack jerked a thumb in Teal'c's direction. "That."

"We only had a minute or two with him last time, inside the temple. Even then…" Carter tapered off.

"He has a way of taking over a room," Mitchell said, tapping a pen and frowning. He looked around the table. "So, was he a god? Are we calling him a god?"

"Spirit," Daniel said. "That's what I translated the first time, from the temple walls."

"As in Holy Ghost?" Mitchell went back to tapping his pen and frowning. "Don't mind me. Just another day at the office for SG-1."

"Are we done here, Hank?" Jack asked.

"We do seem to have come full circle. So unless someone who isn't Doctor Jackson has anything useful to add?"

Daniel opened his mouth in soundless protest.

Hank gave Jack a wink. "Dismissed, people. General, _Odyssey_ awaits your pleasure."

"Tell 'em fifteen minutes. I've got a couple of stops to make first." Jack pushed back his chair and rose. Carter, Mitchell and Landry stood. Daniel's mouth was still open. Jack made sure he'd caught his eye, and stroked his right index finger firmly down the left side of his chin. Daniel's mouth opened a little further. "Folks. Gotta mosey."

Jack took the elevator up to 15, hit the men's room, and took the stairs slowly back down to 17, babying a twinging knee. He still beat Daniel to the storage closet.

"Déjà vu," Daniel said as he closed and locked the door behind him. "The old place hasn't changed much. I couldn't believe it when you gave me the signal."

"I'm impressed that I still remembered it," Jack responded.

"Why did you tell them fifteen minutes, though? It took me a couple of minutes to get away, sorry." Daniel came over and hugged Jack.

Jack squeezed him tight and gave him a chaste kiss. "What I have to say won't take all that long."

Daniel pouted. "No nookie?"

Jack cupped Daniel's face, then let his hands drop.

He had Daniel's attention now. "Jack, what is it?"

"I realized some things, talking to Rex."

"Okay."

"Some things I sort of have in common with him."

Daniel blinked and adjusted his glasses.

Jack picked up a box of paper clips and inspected it. "All his children went away, and he's been lonely." He waited, but Daniel didn't say it. "I know that I'm the one that actually went away. Doesn't really change things."

"I've wondered if you were lonely. Not just missing me, but all of us. Well. I assumed you were. Because I know I would be."

Jack turned the paper clip box over. "There are changes coming, Daniel. I can't really discuss them with you." He set the box back in place. "Shouldn't."

Daniel nudged the box a fraction of a millimeter. "Gonna anyway, huh?"

Jack eyed him. "Carter's up for a promotion."

Daniel registered that. "And a reassignment?"

Jack shrugged. "Can't discuss that."

"So, in other words, yes."

"Then there's Teal'c."

"Is he up for promotion, too?" Daniel stepped a few feet away and leaned against the wall.

"You know he spends more and more time with the Jaffa. No one can blame him. I don't think anyone on this planet can really understand what Jaffa freedom means to him. Mitchell was incredibly lucky to get the band back together in the first place, from where I'm sitting."

"Has Teal'c been talking to you?"

"Can't discuss that."

"And when Sam goes…"

"Mitchell will build a new SG-1. He got what he wanted, for a while, but he's gonna have to rebuild. Maybe Vala will stick around, maybe she won't."

"Wait. Where am I in this scenario?"

Jack squared his shoulders. "In Washington. With me. There's plenty of work for you to do. More money, more time for research. Did I mention the part where you'd be with me?"

Daniel looked like he suspected the wall at his back wasn't very sturdy. "I think you did."

"Anyway." Jack picked up his cover from the shelf beside him. "I'm not sure how much time I have left…"

"What?" Now Daniel looked like the wall was collapsing.

"What?"

"Oh! _Odyssey_!"

Jack frowned. "Are you all right?"

Daniel waved a hand. His face was red, and he seemed to be having trouble breathing.

"Anyway." Jack waited a couple of seconds, watching Daniel. "I have no intention of being lonely till the end of my days. And I have no intention of letting it happen to you, either. And, I don't know, maybe Rex was…showing me the way again."

"Divine intervention?"

Jack made a face. "Bottom line is I love you and I want you with me. And I'm saying so. I'm not trying to rush you into anything. I'm just…planting the seed. Changes are coming and I want you to be…"

"I'm ready right now, Jack."

"Daniel."

"I'm not saying I can leave right now."

"Not askin' you to."

"I'm saying…" Daniel started to laugh. "I'm saying that even if we only have a minute or two before _Odyssey_ beams you out of here, it would have been long enough, because this is one of the hottest conversations we have ever had, and you wouldn't believe how turned on I am."

"See?" Jack managed to say. "This is why I love you. It's the balance." He waggled his hands like a pair of scales. "Whenever I start to get too sappy…"

"You just get to work on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' while you're waiting for me, okay?"

"O…" A flash of light and he was on _Odyssey_ 's bridge. Another one and he was back in his office, standing on the spot he'd left from…less than three hours ago. He closed his eyes and he could still see Daniel leaning against that wall, beaming at him.

Radiant.


End file.
